Wallabies profess their &#39;belief&#39; ahead of Bledisloe Cup

The West Australian

Friday, 17 July 2009 6:15PM

They have professed their "belief" before, but the Wallabies say they will enter today's Bledisloe Cup cauldron with 100 per cent pure belief when they face the huge task of upsetting the All Blacks at Eden Park.

The talk all week in Auckland has been about how settled the Australians are compared with an out-of-sorts All Blacks without the injured Dan Carter, and it has the Wallabies confident they could be about to end their 23-year Auckland hoodoo.

They managed a series-opening win in Sydney last year only to be thrashed 39-10 the next week at Eden Park and now, needing to win three of the four Bledisloe Tests to win the series for the first time in six years, a first-up victory is crucial.

"There's probably a little bit more belief there that the cohesion's there," coach Robbie Deans said yesterday.

"The reality is the Test's coming and those things are assessed retrospectively."

Despite Carter's absence and some indifferent All Blacks form in lead-up Tests against France and Italy, the New Zealanders remain favourites for today's encounter, which doubles as the Tri-Nations series opener.

Richie McCaw returns to captain the All Blacks and resume his ongoing breakdown battle with George Smith, who will become the fourth Australian to play 100 Tests, as well as bench flankers Phil Waugh and David Pocock.

As well as the Auckland hoodoo, the Wallabies will need to overcome a mini-curse which has left them without a victory anywhere in New Zealand since 2001.

"It shouldn't be (difficult to win at Eden Park) but the reality is some sort of hoodoos and these sorts of patterns sometimes eventuate in sport," Wallabies skipper Stirling Mortlock said.

"But the reality is they get broken and our mindset is this is a great opportunity for the group and we know it will be a significant challenge.

"But we're very excited and ready for it.

"I just think that the nucleus of the squad have grown a lot.

"Our understanding and clarity about what we're trying to achieve has improved and that shows in our training, in our mentality and I guess also probably in the confidence the guys have in each other as well."

Australia's bench will include just two backs. Will Genia is on debut and teenager James O'Connor is yet to start a Test outside Australia.

Deans said that had required no special preparation on his part.

"They do it themselves," he said.

"This generation tend to arrive pretty fast, probably the key is settling them more so, putting the reins on them a little bit in terms of their over-exuberance."